Things to Do in Yellowstone, USA

About Yellowstone

Yellowstone became the world's first national park in 1872 and still feels like the original: 2.2 million acres on a volcanic plateau, mostly in Wyoming's northwest corner, holding half the world's geysers, the largest wild bison herd in the country, wolves back in the valleys since 1995, grizzlies on the roadsides in spring and a river canyon with a 308-foot waterfall. It is not a place you see from one hotel. The Grand Loop Road is a 142-mile figure eight, the speed limit is 45 mph, a bison herd can stop traffic for an hour, and the park's five entrances open on to five different gateway towns in three states. The best trips choose two bases, arrive at the famous places before 9am, spend dawn and dusk in the valleys with binoculars, and treat the season's road openings and closures as the first fact to check.

Top Attractions in Yellowstone

1. Old Faithful

   The most famous geyser on Earth erupts roughly every 60 to 110 minutes, 100 to 180 feet high for one to five minutes, and the next predicted time is posted at the visitor center, in the lodges and on the NPS app, usually accurate to within ten minutes. The bigger show is behind it: the Upper Geyser Basin holds the densest concentration of geysers in the world, and the 1.5-mile boardwalk past Castle, Grand, Riverside and the blue Morning Glory Pool (predictions for Grand and Riverside are posted too) is the walk to do while the benches around Old Faithful fill. The 1904 Old Faithful Inn, the largest log building in the world, is worth the lobby even if you sleep elsewhere.

2. Grand Prismatic Spring

   The largest hot spring in the United States, 370 feet across and ringed in orange, yellow and green by heat-loving bacteria, sits in the Midway Geyser Basin seven miles north of Old Faithful. The boardwalk beside it shows the colours through the steam; the overlook trail from the Fairy Falls trailhead, 1.2 miles round trip with a short climb, gives the aerial view from the postcards. Both parking lots are full from 10am to 4pm in summer, so come early or after 5pm, and stay on the boardwalk: the crust is thin and the water is near boiling.

3. Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

   The Yellowstone River drops 109 feet at the Upper Falls and 308 feet at the Lower Falls, twice the height of Niagara, into a 20-mile canyon of yellow, pink and red rhyolite that gave the park its name. Artist Point on the South Rim Drive is the classic view; the Brink of the Lower Falls trail on the North Rim descends 600 feet in three-quarters of a mile to stand beside the water as it goes over; Lookout and Inspiration Points fill in the rest. Canyon Village has the largest visitor center, lodging, fuel and food in the middle of the park.

4. Lamar Valley

   The broad valley along the Northeast Entrance Road between Tower Junction and Cooke City is the 'Serengeti of North America': thousands of bison, elk and pronghorn on the flats, wolves from the packs reintroduced in 1995, grizzly and black bears in spring and early summer, coyotes and bighorn sheep. Be there at first light or in the last two hours before dark, park only in the pullouts, bring binoculars or a spotting scope and look for the clusters of tripods that mark a wolf sighting. The road through it is the only one in the park open to cars all year, and winter is the best wolf-watching season.

5. Hayden Valley

   The other great wildlife valley lies on the lower loop between Canyon and Fishing Bridge, where the Yellowstone River meanders through grassland that bison herds cross in summer, grizzlies dig for roots in spring and trumpeter swans and sandhill cranes work the wetlands. It is the most likely place to be caught in a bison jam, and the pullouts at dusk are the easiest wildlife watching in the park. Mud Volcano and the Dragon's Mouth Spring, a growling cave of steam, are at its south end.

6. Mammoth Hot Springs

   Terraces of white and orange travertine built by hot water rising through limestone, five miles inside the North Entrance and the park's year-round headquarters. Boardwalks loop the Lower Terraces from the parking area and the Upper Terrace Drive; the springs shift from year to year, so some are dry and others suddenly flowing. Elk graze the lawns of historic Fort Yellowstone and bugle among the buildings in the September rut; keep your distance, since cow elk charge to protect calves in spring.

7. Norris Geyser Basin

   The hottest, oldest and most changeable thermal area in the park, at the junction of the upper and lower loops, with Steamboat Geyser, the tallest active geyser in the world at more than 300 feet when it erupts (unpredictably, after intervals of days to years), the milky Porcelain Basin and the Back Basin's two-mile loop of hissing vents. It is a good afternoon stop between Old Faithful and Mammoth or Canyon; the Norris Geyser Basin Museum explains what you are walking on.

8. Yellowstone Lake

   North America's largest high-elevation lake, 136 square miles at 7,733 feet, is too cold to swim in even in August but frames the park's south with the Absaroka Range behind it. The West Thumb Geyser Basin's boardwalk runs along the shore past Fishing Cone, where early tourists cooked trout in the geyser, and the Abyss Pool; the 1891 Lake Yellowstone Hotel has a string quartet in the sunroom and a dining room with a view; Fishing Bridge, at the outlet, is the place to see cutthroat trout in June and the pelicans that eat them.

Best Neighborhoods in Yellowstone

• West Yellowstone

  The busiest gateway sits at the West Entrance in Montana, 30 miles and an hour from Old Faithful, with the largest choice of motels and restaurants, the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center for guaranteed bear sightings, snowcoach and snowmobile outfitters in winter and a small summer airport. It is the natural first base for the geyser basins; the entrance queue can be 30 minutes by 9am in July.

• Gardiner and Mammoth

  Gardiner, Montana, sits under the 1903 Roosevelt Arch at the North Entrance, the only entrance open to cars all year, five miles from Mammoth Hot Springs and an hour from Lamar Valley. It has rafting on the Yellowstone River, a walkable strip of cafés and outfitters, motels and a more local feel than West Yellowstone; the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel inside the park is the winter lodging for wolf watchers.

• Cooke City and Silver Gate

  Two tiny mountain towns outside the Northeast Entrance, a few miles beyond the end of Lamar Valley, with a handful of cabins, cafés and a general store at 7,600 feet. This is where the wolf watchers and photographers sleep to be in the valley at dawn. In summer the Beartooth Highway climbs from here to nearly 11,000 feet on the way to Red Lodge; from mid-October to late May the only way in is through the park from Gardiner.

• Cody

  Buffalo Bill's Wyoming town is 52 miles from the East Entrance through the Wapiti Valley and the Shoshone National Forest, and the best stop for anyone who wants the Old West with the park: the Buffalo Bill Center of the West's five museums (the Plains Indian and firearms collections are world class), the Cody Nite Rodeo every summer evening, the 1902 Irma Hotel and the gunfight staged outside it. Hotels are cheaper than at the western gates, and the drive to the lake over Sylvan Pass is one of the park's finest.

• Old Faithful, Canyon and the in-park lodges

  Sleeping inside the park removes the entrance queues and the 60-mile commute, and puts Old Faithful's night eruptions or a dawn in Hayden Valley outside the door. The Old Faithful Inn and Snow Lodge, Canyon Lodge (the largest complex, central to everything), Lake Yellowstone Hotel and Lake Lodge, Grant Village, Roosevelt Lodge's rustic cabins near Lamar and the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel are run by the park concessioner and book out as soon as reservations open, roughly a year ahead; the 12 campgrounds are reserved through recreation.gov. Expect no TVs, patchy phone signal and early nights.

What to Eat in Yellowstone

• Bison burger at the Old Faithful Inn Dining Room (book at the front desk)
• Huckleberry ice cream from the Old Faithful General Store soda fountain
• Old West Dinner Cookout from Roosevelt Lodge (by wagon or horseback, summer only)
• Trout at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel Dining Room
• Sandwiches for the trail from Ernie's Bakery & Deli in West Yellowstone
• Prime rib at the Irma Hotel in Cody
• Breakfast at the Wonderland Cafe in Gardiner
• Huckleberry pancakes at Running Bear Pancake House in West Yellowstone

Best Time to Visit Yellowstone

Late May to September is the season when every road and lodge is open. July and August are warmest (70s°F by day, 40s at night at 7,000 feet) and busiest, with full parking lots at Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic by mid-morning. September is the local favourite: elk bugling, the bison rut just over, golden aspens, fewer people and the first snow on the passes. April and May bring bear cubs and 'red dog' bison calves but only partly open roads, and October closes the lodges and, road by road, the park. From mid-December to mid-March the interior is reached only by guided snowcoach and snowmobile from West Yellowstone and Mammoth, and the Gardiner to Cooke City road through Lamar Valley stays open to cars for the best wolf watching of the year. Snow can fall in any month; pack layers whenever you come.

Getting to and Around Yellowstone

Yellowstone has no rail link, no shuttle and no bus network, so the trip starts with a rental car (or an RV under 40 feet for most campgrounds). Bozeman (BZN) in Montana is the main airport, about 90 miles and 1 hour 45 minutes from West Yellowstone and 80 miles from Gardiner; Jackson Hole (JAC) is 57 miles south of the South Entrance through Grand Teton National Park (a separate $35 fee); Cody (COD) is 52 miles from the East Entrance; Idaho Falls (IDA) is two hours from West Yellowstone; and Salt Lake City, five hours away, often has the cheapest fares and cars. Rentals run $60–$130 a day in summer and sell out by spring for July, so book them with the flights. The park entrance fee is $35 per private vehicle for seven days, or $80 for the America the Beautiful annual pass that covers every national park; pay at the gate or online. Inside, everything is measured in drive time: West Entrance to Old Faithful 30 miles and an hour, Old Faithful to Canyon Village 38 miles and 1.5 hours via Norris, Canyon to Tower over Dunraven Pass 19 miles, Mammoth to Tower 18, Tower to the Northeast Entrance through Lamar 29 miles, and Old Faithful to Mammoth 51 miles and two hours, all before a single bison jam. Speed limits are 45 mph or lower and enforced; wildlife is on the road at dawn and dusk. Fuel is sold at Old Faithful, Canyon, Grant Village, Fishing Bridge, Mammoth and Tower in season, and nowhere between the gateway towns in winter. Phone signal exists at the villages and vanishes elsewhere. In winter the only motorised access to the interior is on commercially guided snowcoach and snowmobile tours from West Yellowstone, Mammoth and Flagg Ranch, $150–$300 a person for a day trip to Old Faithful.

Where to Stay in Yellowstone

Two bases beat one: geyser country in the southwest and the northern range around Mammoth and Lamar are 50 miles and two hours apart. Inside the park, the Old Faithful Inn's Old House rooms with shared bath run $150–$250 and its modern rooms $300–$400; Canyon Lodge, the Lake Yellowstone Hotel and the Snow Lodge are $250–$600; Roosevelt Lodge's Roughrider cabins with a wood stove and shared showers are the bargain at under $150 and the closest bed to Lamar Valley; and the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel is the one open in winter. All of them open reservations about a year ahead and the summer sells out within weeks, so check for cancellations. Campgrounds (recreation.gov, $20–$40) are the other way to sleep inside. West Yellowstone has the most rooms, $200–$400 a night for a chain hotel or motel in July and half that in May and October; Gardiner is $150–$350 with river views and the year-round gate; Cooke City's cabins are $150–$250 and put you in Lamar at dawn; Cody's motels are $120–$250 and its historic hotels more; Jackson is the expensive gateway at $300–$600 and adds an hour through Grand Teton. Island Park, Idaho, 30 minutes west of West Yellowstone, has the cheapest cabins and vacation rentals. Wherever you sleep, in summer book at least six months ahead; the whole region is short of beds from mid-June to Labor Day.

3 Days in Yellowstone: A Sample Itinerary

Every stop below is one of the places named in this guide. Use it as a starting point, or let the planner build a version around your dates, pace and budget.

Day 1: Geyser country: Old Faithful to Grand Prismatic

1. Morning: Old Faithful

   Through the West Entrance by 7am and along the Madison and Firehole rivers (elk and bison on the meadows) to Old Faithful before the 9am crowd: catch a predicted eruption from the benches, then walk the Upper Geyser Basin boardwalk to Morning Glory Pool, timing Grand or Riverside geysers from the visitor center board.

2. Afternoon: Grand Prismatic Spring

   Lunch from the Old Faithful General Store, then seven miles north to the Fairy Falls trailhead for the Grand Prismatic Spring overlook (1.2 miles round trip) and the Midway Geyser Basin boardwalk beside it, followed by the Fountain Paint Pot's mud pots and the one-way Firehole Lake Drive.

3. Evening: Old Faithful Inn

   Dinner at the Old Faithful Inn Dining Room (reserve at the front desk in the morning), an eruption at dusk from the Inn's upper deck, when the tour buses have left, then the drive back to West Yellowstone in the last light, watching for elk along the Madison.

Day 2: The canyon, Hayden Valley and the lake

1. Morning: Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

   Leave by 7am for Canyon Village via Norris (90 minutes): Artist Point on the South Rim for the Lower Falls in morning light, then the North Rim's Brink of the Lower Falls trail (600 feet down and back up) and Lookout Point.

2. Afternoon: Yellowstone Lake

   South through Hayden Valley (bison crossings, patience) to Mud Volcano and the Dragon's Mouth, then Fishing Bridge and the shore of Yellowstone Lake: a late lunch or the sunroom quartet at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel and the West Thumb Geyser Basin boardwalk at the water's edge.

3. Evening: Hayden Valley

   Back north to Hayden Valley for the last two hours of daylight, when bison graze the river flats and grizzlies work the meadows in spring and early summer (binoculars, pullouts only), then a night at Canyon Lodge or the drive over Dunraven Pass to Tower and on to Gardiner or Cooke City for tomorrow's dawn.

Day 3: Lamar Valley at dawn, Mammoth and Norris

1. Morning: Lamar Valley

   Be in Lamar Valley at first light with binoculars and a thermos: bison herds, pronghorn and elk on the flats, and wolves if the tripod crowd at the Slough Creek or Hitching Post pullouts has found a pack; breakfast afterwards at the Beartooth Cafe in Cooke City or on the way back at Roosevelt Lodge.

2. Afternoon: Mammoth Hot Springs

   Tower Fall and the Blacktail Plateau Drive to Mammoth Hot Springs: the Lower Terrace boardwalks and the Upper Terrace Drive, elk on the lawns of Fort Yellowstone, and the Albright Visitor Center for the park's history.

3. Evening: Norris Geyser Basin

   For a West Yellowstone or Old Faithful finish, drive south through the Gardner and Gibbon canyons to Norris Geyser Basin for the Porcelain Basin loop in the low evening light, when the steam glows and the day-trippers have gone; for a Gardiner finish, the Roosevelt Lodge Old West Dinner Cookout by wagon (summer, reserved) or a bison burger and a beer beside the river in town.

Plan this trip — get a personalized day-by-day Yellowstone itinerary with drive times, restaurant picks and a packing list.

Yellowstone Travel Tips

• Rent a car — there is no public transport inside the park, the Grand Loop Road is a 142-mile figure eight at 45 mph, and the nearest airports (Bozeman, Jackson Hole, Cody, Idaho Falls) are one to two hours from a gate
• Stay at least 25 yards (75 feet) from bison, elk and every other animal and 100 yards (a football field) from bears and wolves; bison injure more visitors than any other animal and can run 35 mph, so if one is on the trail or boardwalk, wait
• Stay on the boardwalks in every thermal area for your own safety — the crust over the springs is thin, the water is near boiling, and people are burned every year taking a shortcut
• Check the park's road status page before every drive: most roads close to cars from early November until mid-April to late May, spring openings happen in stages, and construction and snow close passes without notice even in summer
• Carry bear spray on any hike and know how to use it, download the NPS app and offline maps before you arrive since phone signal exists only at the villages, and fill the tank whenever you pass a station — the next one may be 40 miles away

Yellowstone FAQ

When is the best time to visit Yellowstone?

Late May to September is the season when every road and lodge is open. July and August are warmest (70s°F by day, 40s at night at 7,000 feet) and busiest, with full parking lots at Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic by mid-morning. September is the local favourite: elk bugling, the bison rut just over, golden aspens, fewer people and the first snow on the passes. April and May bring bear cubs and 'red dog' bison calves but only partly open roads, and October closes the lodges and, road by road, the park. From mid-December to mid-March the interior is reached only by guided snowcoach and snowmobile from West Yellowstone and Mammoth, and the Gardiner to Cooke City road through Lamar Valley stays open to cars for the best wolf watching of the year. Snow can fall in any month; pack layers whenever you come.

How much does a day in Yellowstone cost?

Plan on an average daily budget of $150–$300/day in Yellowstone. The local currency is the US Dollar ($).

How do I get around Yellowstone?

Rent a car — there is no public transport inside the park, the Grand Loop Road is a 142-mile figure eight at 45 mph, and the nearest airports (Bozeman, Jackson Hole, Cody, Idaho Falls) are one to two hours from a gate. Check the park's road status page before every drive: most roads close to cars from early November until mid-April to late May, spring openings happen in stages, and construction and snow close passes without notice even in summer.

What should I know about safety and etiquette in Yellowstone?

Stay on the boardwalks in every thermal area for your own safety — the crust over the springs is thin, the water is near boiling, and people are burned every year taking a shortcut.

What are the top things to do in Yellowstone?

Top attractions in Yellowstone include Old Faithful, Grand Prismatic Spring, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Lamar Valley and Hayden Valley. Yellowstone is best for wildlife, geysers, hiking and road trips.

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